April 25, 2008

Final Stats

The Bisons used a late four run rally to defeat conference foe, East Tennessee State University, 4-1 on Friday, April 25.

After getting to Bisons starter, Rex Brothers, in the second inning for a run, both teams exchanged zeroes over the next five innings.

Right-hander, Kyle Tognazzini relieved Brothers to start the eighth. In seven innings, Brothers gave up one run on six hits while striking out seven in the no-decision.

The Bisons finally broke through against Bucs' pitching in the bottom of the eighth. Caleb Joseph continued his clutch hitting, knotting the score at one with an RBI single through the left side. The Bisons took the lead three batters leader, after Allen Bolden scored on an error. After Ryan Wilkins struck out, the next batter, Branden Cadavid hit a ground ball past the first basemen, for the Bucs' second error of the evening, allowing two more Lipscomb runs to cross the plate, for a 4-1 Bisons' lead.

Joseph led the Bisons on offense, going four for four with an RBI to raise his batting average to .388.

"They shut us down for seven innings," Joseph said. "Plumlee pitched awesome. He kept us off balance. But Rex kept us in the game, which I think was the biggest thing.

"Rex has gotten three losses, and out of those three I think two have really been our fault, where the offense just did not score many runs for him. He deserved to get a win tonight. He's slowing getting back to his old self. He will be alright. So expect a big finish in the tournament. He's going to blow people away."

Tognazzini got the win to improve to 5-0 on the season. With the win the Bisons improved their record to 22-19, and 16-9 in the conference.

The series will resume tomorrow, April 26, with a 6 p.m. start time. Right-hander, Brandon McClurg is expected to receive the start for the Bisons. On the season, McClurg is 5-2 with a 2.72 ERA.